The Results of the Treatment with Circular External Fixator for Severely Comminuted Intraarticular Fractures involving the Knee

Lee, Gang Wook; Lee, Je Hoon; Hwang, Byung Yun

Abstract

In treating the patients having the intraarticular condylar fractures of the distal femur and the proximal tibia, many aulhors have recommended accurate anatomical reduction and rigid internal fixaion with early mobiliEation of the thee. But we cant often reduce the displaced bony fragments into the anatomical position and also fix them rigidly in severely comminuted and displaced fractures in proctice. Furthermore open wound makes surgeons face with some difficulties in using internal fixatives due to postoperative osteomyelitis. We treated 16 cases of severely comminuted intraarticular fractures involving the knee with circular fikator from March, 1992 to October 1994. Those were composed of 8 intraarticular femoral condylar fractures in which 7 cases were classified as C3 by AO classification and 6 cases had open wound, and 8 intraarticular tibil condylar fractures in which 8 cases were classified as type VI by Schatzkers classification and 6 cases showed open fractures. We could get bony union in all cases but we were not satisfied with the functional results of the treatment. So, we recommend the circular external fixation as a method for the treatment of these severely comminuted fractures involving the knee, and we think that further study for improving the functional results will be needed.